There is conventionally a print service that causes a client to transmit a print instruction to a server and then causes the server that has received the print instruction to convert print target content into print data. The concept of cloud computing that has recently received a great deal of attention can also be regarded as a form of server's service providing to a client, like the above-described system. The cloud computing mainly features distributively executing data conversion and data processing using many computing resources and simultaneously processing requests from a number of clients. Vendors are now coming along, which implement a Web service on a cloud computing environment for implementing the cloud computing and provide a variety of print services (called cloud print services, and in this example, also simply called print services).
For example, Google Inc. has developed a mechanism of data communication to provide a print service in cooperation with a printer and released an interface that allows the printer to execute data communication with a cloud computing environment prepared by Google Inc. When this interface is implemented in the printer, a client can designate the printer and cause it to print even if the printer and the server are connected via the Internet.
The procedure until the use of a known print service will be explained below. The print service is a function implemented in a server or a server group, and makes a print application run based on an instruction from a client and provides print data by communicating with a connected printer.
First, a service printer is registered in the print service. The service printer is an instance for printer selection and is associated with a real printer. This corresponds to a print queue in a printing system of Windows®.
To register a service printer in the print service, the account of the print service is acquired. The account, printer information, and a printer ID are linked and registered in the print service. The service printer registration methods can roughly be classified into two methods. In one method, a printer supporting the print service is directly connected to the print service and registered. In the other method, a proxy service connectable to a printer is connected to the print service, and registration is performed. In this case, even a printer that cannot directly be connected to the print service can be registered in the print service through the proxy service. The proxy service indicates a print relay function implemented in an information processing apparatus, which is connectable to the print service, and registers the service printer in the print service based on the printer information and transmits print data received from the print service to a corresponding printer. The proxy service is incorporated in a Web browser of the information processing apparatus, and registers the service printer in the print service based on the information of a print queue in the information processing apparatus. For example, in the Web browser GOGGLE CHROME® provided by Google Inc., the “advanced settings” is provided with a button for enabling a Google cloud print connector. If a printer based on a print queue of the computer is unregistered, the user can register and enable the printer by pressing the button.
The service printer identified by the account and the printer ID and a print job queue are thus generated on the print service. When the user logs in from the Web browser of the information processing apparatus to the print service using the account of the print service, the service printer and the print job queue linked with the account are displayed.
To perform printing, the user instructs the print service to print from an application supporting the print service. Then, a list of service printers linked with the account of the print service to which the user has logged in is displayed. When the user selects a service printer, the application transmits a print job to the print job queue of the selected service printer. If the printer corresponding to the selected service printer supports the print service, the print job is directly transmitted from the print service to the printer and printed. If the printer corresponding to the selected service printer has been registered through a proxy service, the print job is transmitted to the printer through the proxy service. When the proxy service is incorporated in the Web browser, the print job is transferred to the print queue in the information processing apparatus and printed.
A printer is expensive to some degree and is rarely occupied by one person for continuous printing all the time. Hence, a cost advantage can be obtained when a plurality of persons share one printer and use it while shifting the print time. The print service prepares a certain solution for such utilization. To allow a plurality of users to use one service printer from the print service, the “share” function of the print service is used. First, one user registers the service printer in the print service by the above-described method. The print service links and stores the user and the service printer. The user is called a printer manager. The printer manager determines whether to allow another user to use the service printer. The printer manager then sets the account of the user determined to be able to use the printer to share the print job queue of the service printer. The print job queue of the service printer of the printer manager and the account of the user are thus linked so that the user set to share (to be referred to as a share user for short hereinafter) can transmit a print job to the print job queue. The print service manages the user set to share as well while linking it with the service printer. The user set to share need not register the service printer.
The print service is provided with a means for deleting the service printer registered by the printer manager. To delete the service printer, the printer manager logs in from the Web browser to the print service, selects the service printer to be deleted, and deletes it. The information of the service printer in the print service is thus erased and becomes invisible from the printer manager or share users. In addition, since the erased service printer is invisible, the printer manager or share users cannot transmit any print job to the print job queue of the service printer. Deletion of the service printer in the print service is done to erase the information of the printer from the print service without plans to use anymore.
On the other hand, the Web browser of the information processing apparatus is also provided with a means for disabling printing by the printer registered by the printer manager from the print service through the proxy service incorporated in the Web browser. When the disabling means is executed on the Web browser, the proxy service stops acquiring a print job from the print service. Printing from the print service to the printer registered through the proxy service is not executed anymore. In this case, the service printer registered through the proxy service remains in the print service. The printer manager or share users can transmit a print job to the print job queue of the service printer even after disabling the service printer. However, since printing by the printer, that is, print job transmission is not performed, as described above, unprinted print jobs accumulate in the print job queue. When the printer manager enables use of the print service again on the Web browser, the proxy service incorporated in the Web browser resumes print job acquisition to the print service so that printing to the printer registered through the proxy service is possible again. Disabling printing from the print service on the Web browser is done to temporarily stop use of printing from the print service to the printer linked with the proxy service incorporated in the Web browser.
Patent literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-160579
The above-described print service has the following problems. As the first problem, when the printer manager performs, on the Web browser, the operation of disabling printing from the print service, the users of the print service cannot easily recognize that the service printer is disabled, that is, printing to the printer linked with the proxy service incorporated in the Web browser is stopped.
As the second problem, the printer manager cannot easily delete the printers registered in the print service through the proxy service incorporated in the Web browser at once.